A rising pet population and a shortage of time are two significant elements in the challenges that the veterinary profession is currently facing. Additionally, many Australian clinics are facing staffing shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the high number of vets leaving the profession. According to Animal Medicines Australia, "61% of Australian homes have a pet", putting pet ownership at a historic high. More visits from pet owners also mean more patients and administrative tasks for the veterinarian. With such hectic procedures, doing paperwork the traditional way on paper takes up too much time. It is commonly seen as inefficient and prevents them from doing what they truly enjoy, caring for animals. Therefore, it is necessary to look at ways to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative activities.
The problems
Time
Australia has one of the highest pet-to-owner ratios in the world. Along with this rise in pet ownership, comes a rise in the number of pets needing veterinary care. Unfortunately for the veterinarian, this means increased pressure and administrative tasks.
Veterinary practices can spend up to an extra 3-6 minutes processing paperwork for every single client. All these forms then have to be scanned and filed - wasting hours of precious time that could be spent on patient care. In fact, 70% of vet nurses have said they spend up to 3 hours on paperwork each day - for an average 5-day work week, this adds up to a huge 15 hours per week.
This paperwork could include:
Papers can be easily lost, especially if a client is stressed. We all know how it happens – you put the document somewhere safe so it won’t be damaged, and then you forget where this safe place was, or it accidentally gets thrown out in the trash. Now, the client has to make another appointment or call the practice for help, using up more precious time that could be spent treating patients.
Space
Other than being a massive time-waster to fill out, scan, and file, paper documents are bulky. It can be difficult to find information within these bulk documents when you’re in a rush. Because many veterinary forms are considered legal documents, they must be kept for a minimum of 7 years, causing a large accumulation of forms. Keeping filing cabinets or paying for storage is one thing, but searching through large filing cabinets stacked with papers for specific patient files is a daunting task, and would be much easier if these documents were more accessible and organized. If you are considering a professional shredding service, these costs can also quickly add up.
Money
If you’re part of a large veterinary practice with hundreds of clients, the costs of paper and printing quickly add up. This is an avoidable expense, using up funds that could be put to better use somewhere else.
With all this talk about space, money, and most importantly, time wasted on repetitive administrative tasks, it leaves us thinking – surely there is a solution?
The answer? Yes. VetCheck.
The solution
VetCheck handles things differently; it allows you to simply ask customers to fill out digital paperwork, giving you more time to spend on the most important aspects of animal care while still having fantastic documentation systems in place. It also allows you to easily access this documentation in case you need to refer to anything that you are unsure of with ease. VetCheck saves vet practitioners an average of 10 hours per person each week when transitioned to a digital workflow.
With typical vet consultations running for roughly 20 minutes, this time is extremely valuable, and keeping things on schedule is important. It generally includes an initial consultation with the pet owner, addressing their concerns, and a check-up of the pet(s), followed by the administration of any medicine/vaccination. This takes up even more time if the case is complicated. It is already hard enough to squeeze all of this into 20 minutes without having to fill out and provide additional paperwork.
"Each patient generally has 3 to 4 documents on each visit, with at least 10 pieces of paper used each visit". Combine that with the fact that the average Vet clinic conducts 3 to 4 surgeries per day, we can understand how the paperwork piles up. "Each document would take around 3-6 minutes from filling out the page to scanning the document and putting it into a PDF format and then placing it into a client's file".
By making all of these forms and documents electronic, VetCheck provides veterinarians with more time for important tasks. Forms can be filled out quickly in a few clicks and can then easily be organized into a client file without the need for tedious scanning and filing.
We’ve already mentioned how easily paper documents can be lost. VetCheck offers a solution by allowing important files and discharge information to be sent directly to the pet owner via email, providing them with easily accessible, important information right at their fingertips for them to refer to whenever they need to.
Not only that, but by using VetCheck and digitizing everything, we can avoid the need to cut down more trees, which is both environmentally friendly and cost-effective, as printer ink is not cheap, and it is common for practitioners to rewrite documents because of bad penmanship or if certain details got filled in incorrectly.
(Sourced from VetCheck. Available from https://vetcheck.it/why_vetcheck/)
"VetCheck is now our go-to for digital resources. What we did in paperwork, we now do in VetCheck. We have saved so much time and money by going paperless and it was so easy to do. We would never go back." - Barossa Vet Clinic
"Definitely less paperwork and filing! VetCheck is easy to use and access on any device, even from home to share forms for the following week. E-signatures have been really useful too." - Mona Vale Vet Hospital
Conclusion
VetCheck is a great tool for all veterinary clinics, regardless of their demands. They provide a variety of services at various pricing ranges, allowing you to choose what is ideal for your team. With loads of resources for others, as well as instructional templates for easy customization and personalisation, VetCheck allows you to improve your clients' experiences, resolve confusion, reduce costs associated with paperwork, and most importantly, save you time.